PDQ Bach

Peter Schickele and P.D.Q. Bach

Today is the birthday of the American composer and musical satirist Peter Schickele, who was born in Ames, Iowa, on this date in 1935. Schickele grew up in Fargo, North Dakota, and while in Fargo laid claim to being the best -- and only -- bassoonist in that city.

Schickele also claims to have graduated from the prestigious University of Southern North Dakota at Hoople -- but more reliable reference books state his B.A. was, in fact, from some obscure East Coast college called Swarthmore. Schickele studied composition with Roy Harris in Pittsburgh, Darius Milhaud at Aspen, and with Vincent Persichetti and William Bergsma at the Juilliard School in New York.

It was at Juilliard that he met fellow composer Philip Glass, who helped Schickele build some of the outrageous instruments utilized in the first public P.D.Q. Bach concerts, which Schickele started up in 1965, after "discovering" scores of scores by the "justly" neglected Baroque composer P.D.Q. Bach, the last-born and promptly-disowned, composer son of J.S. Bach, according to Professor Schickele's scholarly research.

The works of P.D.Q. Bach have proved so popular that it comes as a surprise to many that Peter Schickele actually composes music of his own, including string quartets and symphonies. One of Schickele's best-known works is his 1976 concerto entitled 'Pentangle" subtitled "Five Songs for French Horn and Orchestra."